


For she the mother of all men

by green7silver



Series: The Betsy chronicles [2]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, John has kind of PTSD, Not Beta Read, even if they didn´t knew it in this time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 09:36:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13633617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green7silver/pseuds/green7silver
Summary: She had done that so often before, with people, who came new to this island. People who had faced horrors and pain. She was after all not only their Queen, she was also their priestess, their healer, but she never had done this to a white man before.





	For she the mother of all men

Arania Scott, Queen of Maroons was worried about a lot of things.

First were of course her people and their future. While the peace treaty gave them a welcome moment of rest, she didn´t believe in the good will of the white men. Featherstone might be honorable and Max might really invested in their case, but they wouldn´t rule Nassau forever. And since the location of their people was exposed to the whole Caribbean now ….

It wouldn´t do to stay here. In the long run, they would have to find a better place to hide. Somewhere to be free, but still to have anything they needed. That damned treasure would have been a solid foundation for it. And maybe, it wasn´t so much out of their reach, as anybody would think. Captain Flint could be a reasonable man, if he wanted.

But all that could wait. There were more pressing matters at hand. The recent disagreement with her daughter for once. She had been so afraid, that she would never see her again, so frightened in the time of Madi´s  imprisonment, that it was rather a bad joke, that now when they were finally reunited they were disagreeing so much.

Madi thought her mother swayed by Julius. But it wasn´t that easy. Arania had had long discussions with the man in order to persuade him and had seen his truth instead. But that was only half of the story. She had spoken with the leaders around, with the captains and the former slaves. Many of the latter were rather wary of a too wide spreading of the war.

And it had helped her to remember one truth, she nearly had forgotten. As much as the white men in Europe might struggle with each other, against the black men they would stay united. Hadn´t Rogers proved that much, when he went for the arch nemesis of England for help – and got it without problems?

Captain Flint had painted a beautiful picture for her – based on her deep rooted wish to see her people all around the new world living in freedom.

But Julius was right that the world would not be changed so easily and when they lost the war, it would have been her people to pay the price for it.

And then Madi had returned, wonderfully alive. And all her joy, her elation about that had been mixed with fear pretty quickly.

It was not alone the fact, that Madi herself didn´t want to be swayed in preventing this war – she was young and idealistic and believed the world could be changed. Not even that for the first time mother and daughter stood for different decisions.

It was what the news about defeating Rogers and the immediate return of Captain Flint and Long John Silver with the cache did to the people around her, equal black and white.

Even the most cautious of them were suddenly overcome with euphoria and demanded to drive on that war. When Flint and Silver would return with the cache there would be no reasoning any more, they would have been overrun with a wave of enthusiasm, which would pull all of them into this war like a ocean pulls a sinking ship to the ground, until there would be no way out of it again.

And when Silver turned up a few days later, without Flint and the cache, but with a treaty in his hand, she could understand Madi´s wrath, but all she could feel was an overwhelming relieve.

But the treaty didn´t solve all problems, especially the question, if Madi, ready to trade the safety of people for a castle in the air, was the leader their people would need in the long run.

Arania was tired to be honest. She had carried the burden of being the Maroon Queen all this years and she wanted to be able to discard it. She had long known, that even with Madi taking her place, there would no possibility of a complete retirement and she had accepted it. But with her beloved husband gone, she wasn´t sure how much strength she had left to give to her people.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and she gave Cesar, one of her confidantes a nod.

“Madam,” a young boy, whose name she didn´t remember, one of Julius´ men, bowed respectfully. “There was an incident near the beach concerning a cat and John Silver.”

John Silver, one more thing to worry about and yet a welcome distraction from her worries.

“I will take care of it,” she informed the boy.

When she reached a beach, her guards had already cleared away any bystanders, and only Israel Hands were left standing beside Silver, who sat on the earth, seemingly unable to get up again.

Hands had refused to leave the island with the other pirates and instead hovered most of the time somewhere near the former pirate king, like a big watchdog. Arania had expected him to leave sooner or later, when he understood, that Silver had retired in earnest, but she seemed to have underestimated his loyalty.

He eyed her rather warily, before returning to the argument he had with his king.

“Someone really should have a look at your leg. That fall didn´t look nice.”

“A few minutes rest and everything will be all right”, Silver seemed still be as stubborn as when he first came to the island. Arania was very much aware how much force Madi had had to use for him to accept help back then.

“I will settle this,” she addressed Israel Hands. “You can trust me with him.”

The old pirate gave her measured look, which she returned without blinking, until he finally gave a short nod and left them alone.

 “Well, it probably wasn´t such a good idea for a one-legged man to try to climb on a tree,” Silver admitted and looked a bit sheepish. “But I had to get her down.”

“Her” was a small cat who didn´t seem to object to be hold by him.

 “I understand, that she was your ship cat, which left your ship, when you first stranded here,” Arania sat down on a rock beside the young man.

“Yes, I was afraid, that something happened to her during the Doldrums. Some of the men were so damned hungry,” Silver petted the animal. “She belonged to Randall.”

“Randall,” Arania used the patient voice of her, she normally used when she wanted someone to talk. Because talking was something he really needed to do. He had bottled so much inside; it probably was suffocating him by now.

“Randall was the cook on the Walrus, when I first arrived. A clever old fellow, who made everyone believe, that he was a nut case, when he exactly knew what was going on. Didn´t like me in the beginning, because I took his place.”

“You were a cook?” she couldn´t picture him in this profession.

“Not really. Honestly, I had no idea about cooking at all. See, I was on this merchant ship, they attacked. And per chance I found a page out of the logbook. So I told them that I was a cook, because a good cook is always wanted. I just wanted to sail to next harbor with them and sell my page there.”

“I assume the page was the schedule of the Urca de Lima?”

“Yes, and Flint caught me of course. I had to burn the schedule and commit it to my memory, to prevent him from killing me.”

“Captain Flint never seemed a very forgiving man to me. I wonder how you made him trust you again.”

“He can be forgiving, if he wants”, John´s voice trembled. “I didn´t just steal the schedule, I later also stole the gold. After we found the Urca de Lima, we needed to get back to Nassau to get help to retrieve it.  I bribed the guards to tell Flint the Spanish had come back and then sold the location to Jack Rackham instead.

I told Flint the truth shortly before we first got to your island. He just let it go.”

He paused, obviously lost in his memories, so Arania had to prompt him to talk: “But you didn´t receive you share of that gold, did you?”

“No, Charlestown happened. You heard of Charlestown, didn´t you?”

“Only what everyone knows. That Flint tried to strike a deal with the governor of California, that the woman he loved, was killed and that he erased the entire town”, her husband had told her a bits of it, but not much.

“Well, while Flint was in Charlestown, Captain Vane entered our ship. That was, when Randall died”, his voice hitched. “But when the message arrived, that Flint should be hanged, Vane decided to go and save him and left a part of his crew behind. They were not very happy with this sudden decision. They wanted to sail away, but they had not enough men for managing the ship.

They singled me out to give them the name of some men, who would be ready to betray the others and offered me a passage to Nassau for it, to my gold.

But I couldn´t do it. It would have given me the one thing I ever wanted. To have enough gold to buy my freedom from everything, but I still couldn´t do it. They would have killed the rest of the crew, all my brothers; they would left Flint and Vane behind, fighting alone. I couldn´t.”

“And instead you lost your leg.”

“And they voted me for quartermaster. I accepted it. I, who run away from responsibility all my life. I vowed to protect them, but I failed. Everyone who sailed with me to Charlestown is dead by now. They died in Flint´s raids, during the storm, here on this island fighting British soldiers, on Nassau. But most of them died, when Rogers sunk the Walrus.

I lead them in the disaster, and I had known for some time, that this war could not be won,” there was desolation in his voice.

And tears. And Arania pulled him to her side, so that his head rested in her lap. She had done that so often before, with people, who came new to this island. People who had faced horrors and pain. She was after all not only their Queen, she was also their priestess, their healer, but she never had done this to a white man before. But John Silver was someone special, the man, who brought them peace, the man her daughter loved, even if she didn´t know yet, that she would forgive him.

“You ended this war,” she stroked through the dark locks, feeling him relax a bit, “you couldn´t save this men anymore or your ship, but you saved the people on this island from a war, that we wouldn´t have won. Not against the full force of England’s and Spain’s wrath.”

“I lied and cheated to stop the war. I hurt the people I love so much.” John whispered.

“And still you did it, to protect them, to protect the innocents, which the war would have claimed. What you did asked for a great amount of strength and courage. Sometimes there are no easy solutions, no right way to do something,” she soothed.

“There might have been, if I had tried to find a solution earlier. But I wanted so much to believe in Flint and Madi and this war, I couldn´t let them down.

But then the Spanish allied the British, when we even didn´t threat them in person. And when they raided Nassau and murdered innocent bystanders, when I thought Madi was killed, I knew, we would lose that war. But I still would have done it,” Silver groaned miserable. “If Madi had died, I would have carried on with that war, knowing it couldn´t be won and sacrificing all my men, your people to sooth my pain.”

“If Madi had died, I wouldn´t have hindered you”, the Maroon Queen replied gently. “If you lose the ones you love, there is nothing you wouldn´t do.

But you didn´t do in the end. And you carry enough around with you, without blaming yourself for what you could have done.”

“I see their faces at night. All the men, who have died. I could have prevented the destruction of the Walrus. What I did on that bloody island was downright foolish.

I would had given the cache for Madi´s life and I don´t regret this, but I should have known, that Rogers didn´t intend to let any of us to get away alive. I should have listened to Flint – and maybe we found a way together, which would have saved her live and their lives.”

“When Mr. Bones created Long John Silver, we all knew, that you weren´t an accomplished leader, that you never had been trained for that, “Arania caressed his cheek. “Flint was supposed to help you with your decisions, not to play cat and mouse with you and the cache. You were fixated on my daughter and he on his war.

Love can blind the eye and diffuse your decisions. That makes you not the best leader, but still a good person.

No one can absolve you from the death of your men, but you did the right thing in the end, even if it was in very twisted way and you were ready to pay for it. Maybe that is enough for the beginning.”

“Do you think so?” Silver asked uncertainly and for a moment she could see the man behind the mask, not a king of the pirates but a motherless child.

“I think you saved more lives, than you scarified.”

She felt him relax and smiled. It wouldn´t be the end of his nightmares and grief, but maybe he could start to heal now.

“Thank you for your patience,” he slowly regained grip of his feelings and tried to get up. Only to sink back down with a groan. She examined him critically. “I think I should find Mr. Hands and help you to Aima. She will take care of your wounds.”

“It´s nothing.”

“You are really a stubborn fool, John Silver. It´s time to learn to trust me. Pride is nothing in a family.“

“I should probably inform you, that I have no experience with having a family.”

“I know. But you should know, even if my daughter is angry, you are the one she choose. You have a family now. You better get used to it.”

“Is that a command my Queen?”

“My name is Arania, but yes, it was.” She squeezed his shoulder. “You are not alone.”

“Thank you.”

_Fin_

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a line from “Lady in Black”


End file.
